Photo provided by mike.jw under a Creative Commons license

An article recent came out at the Boston Globe, talking about the Millennial generation and the vinyl to digital transition of music.

“The younger generation has no romantic attachments to records as physical objects. To them, music exists as a kind of omnipresent atmospheric resource.

And it’s not that I begrudge them their online treasure troves or bite-size iPods. But I still miss the way it used to be, in the old days, when fans had to invest serious time and money to track down the album or song they wanted.

What I’m getting at here is a deeper irony: technology has made the pursuit of our pleasures much easier. But in so doing, I often wonder if it has made them less sacred. My children will grow up in a world that makes every song they might desire instantly available to them. And yet I sort of pity them that they will never know the kind of yearning I did.”

Even though I grew up mainly in the cassette and compact disc eras, I love vinyl. I love the feel of a record in my hands. I miss looking at the artwork on the vinyl itself or the packaging.

Music is an art form, both in sound, and in sight. Liner notes in CD’s have lately been reduced to a single slip of paper, instead of the large-format prints of the 90’s. Cassettes are all but forgotten, but vinyl has seen a surge in popularity as of late, selling close to a million albums in 2008, up over 15% from sales in 2007.

Time Inc. ran an article about this very subject in 2008, aptly titled “Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back”.

“Album extras Large album covers with imaginative graphics, pullout photos (some even have full-size posters tucked in the sleeve) and liner notes are a big draw for young fans. “Alternative rock used to have 16-page booklets and album sleeves, but with iTunes there isn’t anything collectible to show I own a piece of this artist,” says Dreese of Newbury Comics.”

What was lost, and is now being found, is the second art of music sales.

The packaging.

I, for one, am happy to see that particular art form return.

I run across quite a few “random but fun” music-related things during the week. Starting this weekend I’ll be posting a weekend series of these with some brief thoughts.  Suggestions are welcome for the series and be sure to check my Contact Me page for information on where we can connect.

Hint: Twitter is usually easiest. I’m @misskatiemo. Say hi!

Augmented Reality – A computer, a record and a video camera.

AR scratching from vanderlin on Vimeo.

Behind the Scenes – The making of Blueprint 3′s cover art

Packaging As An Instrument – Moldover’s Album Packaging

What’s the takeaway?

How can you take something normal like the creating of album packaging or artwork and turn it into something extraordinary like a time-lapse behind-the-scenes video or a musical instrument?

The augmented reality bit is just plain cool.

Yes, really.

This post is a direct result of a dubstepforum.com thread about a certain big-name Dubstep label removing their tracks from being sold online.

This argument can be broken down into two sides.

Side 1 – Labels should release content in one (or a limited # of) format(s)

Side 2 – Labels should release content in multiple formats

This is one of the most heated debates happening around music right now. Feel free to comment and tell me how wrong I am if you disagree with my viewpoints!

To the arguments!

Side 1 – Labels should release content in one (or a limited # of) format(s)

The “pro” argument for this side really comes down to two points:

1. By releasing in a select # of formats you preserve the value of the music (i.e. – if it’s on vinyl, those pieces could become collectors items eventually)
2. By only releasing a select # of formats you make it harder for people to illegally share your music (ex: if you want to illegally share your vinyl you have to rip it to your computer first, then share it – it’s much harder than just sharing a digital release)

The “pro” arguments of this make sense, and while I’m not saying they’re false, I do disagree with the implications of these arguments.

Supply and demand ” concludes that in a competitive market, price will function to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an economic equilibrium of price and quantity. An increase in the quantity produced or supplied will typically result in a reduction in price and vice-versa.”

In other words, the more something is wanted and the less resources of that “something” available, the higher the value of that “something” will be.  See below for the pretty picture. (the above quote and below photo are all from the Wikipedia page linked above)

The implication of this supply and demand argument (#1) is that you should produce a small quantity of an item, and certainly smaller than you anticipate demand to be for this particular item. That, in turn, creates incentive for people to pre-order or stand in line (for example) to purchase your music.  The format will preserve it’s “value” because your item is now a limited resource. Think “collectors item” as far as the consumer is concerned.

That’s all well and good, but not every piece of music is going to be a collector’s item.

I’m getting ahead of myself…

On to Argument #2 – “By only releasing a select # of formats you make it harder for people to illegally share your music”

Here’s where I really have my beef with limited format releases. I’m willing to buy your music. I may not buy a lot of it these days because I can find what I like in other formats (i.e. – mix sets), but if I like a piece of music I’m absolutely willing to go to your store (whether it be a website or a physical store) to buy your music.

What really upsets me as a consumer is when I’m ready and willing to buy your music, and you put barriers in my way.  Let’s stick with the electronic genre for a moment, and consider that their target audience usually owns a record player. It makes sense, if I’m trying to prevent people from sharing my music illegally, to limit my release to a format that makes it harder for people to do just that.  For the vinyl example I’d have to play the track, record a high-quality version on to my computer, then upload that to a filesharing program somewhere and distribute. That’s harder than just sticking a CD in my computer and clicking “copy”… but not by much.

Here I am, willing consumer ready, able and wanting to part with my money, and I can’t. Why can’t I? I don’t own a record player. If you offered your music on CD or in a digital format I could play it, but as it happens, I don’t have the resources to play your music.

What do I do instead? I go search for it online.

Lost money for you, and I’m now helping to perpetuate exactly what you don’t want – illegal download of your music.

Side 2 – Labels should release content in multiple formats

On the flip side of this argument you have the “go forth and prosper” folks, or, as they can be called, the consumers.

This side comes down to a few simple arguments as well:

1. If I’m ready to part with my money to buy your music, I want to purchase your music in a format I can enjoy.
2. If you put barriers in my way, there are easy ways I can overcome them. Very few of these ways equal money in your pocket.

I stated this above, but it’s worth repeating.

Here I am, willing consumer ready, able and wanting to part with my money, and I can’t. Why can’t I? I don’t own a record player. If you offered your music on CD or in a digital format I could play it, but as it happens, I don’t have the resources to play your music.

What do I do instead? I go search for it online.

Lost money for you, and I’m now helping to perpetuate exactly what you don’t want – illegal download of your music.

I’m a consumer. I want to consumer your music. I may prefer the richness of a track on vinyl, or I may be riding a subway for an hour a day and really want something new for my MP3 player. Either way, I want you to cater to my wants and needs. I’m giving my money to you and in this day and age, I’m used to getting what I want, how I want it, when I want it.

Please me, please.

As a music producer or label, you can probably guesstimate what % of your target audience consumes music in which format. You can base this off of previous sales or market trends/statistics, for example. That’s smart. What’s not smart is saying “So 70% of our audience consumes our music in this format, so we’re going to ignore the other 30% and just cater to this 70%.”

Using the vinyl example (again), how do you know that I’m not a traveling DJ who really prefers DJ’ing with actual records when at home, but prefers using Serato or CDJ’s when I’m on the road? Sure, I could follow the example above and rip your music to my computer without spending any extra money, but that requires time and I think my time is worth coughing up the extra cash to also download a digital version.

I may be in your 70% that consumes your music on vinyl, but how do you know I’m not also in the 30% contributing to consumption in another way??

You don’t.

This brings me to the second argument. “If you put barriers in my way, there are easy ways I can overcome them. Very few of these ways equal money in your pocket.”

I’ll, again, re-iterate what I said above:

Here I am, willing consumer ready, able and wanting to part with my money, and I can’t. Why can’t I? I don’t own a record player. If you offered your music on CD or in a digital format I could play it, but as it happens, I don’t have the resources to play your music.

What do I do instead? I go search for it online.

Lost money for you, and I’m now helping to perpetuate exactly what you don’t want – illegal download of your music.

I’m an honest consumer who is ready and willing to part with my money to buy your music. Please, let me!

A forum member stated this exact thought pretty well, saying that they were searching online for tunes to buy but couldn’t find any of them, and since the label didn’t release in a digital format and he didn’t own a record player, he couldn’t buy their music. The post has since been moved or deleted, preventing me from quoting.

Summary: Perhaps “idiot” is a harsh term to some, but I think it’s fitting. Consumers have more power now than they ever had before, and the companies that are succeeding are companies that are keeping this power in mind. My suggestion isn’t to bend over backwards and do whatever the consumer wants, but my suggestion is to keep their needs and preferences in mind, and see how you, as a music producer, can modify your actions to accomodate their needs/wants.  Gone are the days of “consumers will do as the company commands” – and the quicker companies realize this, the better off they’ll be.

A suggestion, if I may.  Encourage people to buy your music in multiple formats by offering discounted pricing on these items. If I purchase your music in a store, give me a discount to buy it digitally too. You can track this to figure out where/when I bought, as well as end up with more money in your pocket in the end. I don’t expect things for free, but I do want to feel like you actually care for my preferences. Show me that and not only get my money, but begin to win my loyalty.

On with the controversy. I’m eager to hear your thoughts!